Legendary’s ‘Godzilla’: What We Know So Far

With just a week or two removed from San Diego Comic-Con 2013 and G-FEST XX, settling into my new home and finally getting internet, let us finally dig into the news-load that has come from the Godzilla camp so far just before, during and after SDCC 2013.

Apparently before SDCC 2013 began, there have been photos showing some sculptures of what appeared to be Legendary’s version of Godzilla. After seeing the video footage that was leaked online from the Godzilla Encounter booth at the Comic-Con, the Godzilla that was leaked in the footage is a bit different than the sculpture from what we posted in the previous article; but not by much, however. The one in the leaked footage appears to be a little more menacing, bulkier and more skin texture. The Godzilla in the leaked footage still kind of has that combined look/resemblance from The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla 2000 versions as I mentioned in the previous post. But nevertheless, the leaked version looks really great, and can’t wait to fully see it after some more modifications to it afterwards.

During one of Gareth Edwards’ interviews, he mentioned that their version of Godzilla is suppose to be one of the biggest, if not, the biggest Godzilla to ever rampage the silver screen.

As much as we would like to post a leaked photo from the footage, Legendary and Warner Bros. would then come and ask us to take the photo down, so pretty much it would be a waste of energy to post a photo that would wind up being taken off anyways. So we’ll wait for the official reveal of the finished look of their Godzilla.

Also, before the Comic-Con event took place, a couple new teaser posters were released for the upcoming film; with the one to the left and the partial one above. The one above is very unique and shows demolished buildings in the form of Godzilla. You can say that it resembles more or less that Godzilla is one of the trials and/or errors or doomed creations from humanity. The other teaser poster to the left shows more of a back-end of their Godzilla and his immense size (although it probably will not be the actual size). I also like how these two teaser posters look and making their points. So all-n-all, not much to add here.

When the time came for the Godzilla panel on July 20th, it turned out that there wasn’t as much and that the actual panel lasted for close to 15 minutes, which is kind of a bummer. However, the crew literally finished filming just two days before the panel, which makes sense and that the footage they had was getting into the editing phase. But they did show some new footage to the attendees besides the concept trailer they showed at last year’s panel.

There’s a video of the full Godzilla SDCC panel which you can view below, and at least it’ll save me some time as far as writing stuff.

[youtube id=”WUEPGY68tJQ” width=”620″ height=”349″]

After the attendees left Hall H when some stayed to do some interviews, the folks at ScreenRant got an interview with Director Gareth Edwards about Godzilla. And from what it sounded like according to their interview, Gareth is more than willing to do more sequels and to hopefully do a Destroy All Monsters-like film, and said that their Godzilla was designed for more sequels in mind, which I think is really awesome. So with out a further ado, here’s Gareth’s first response to ScreenRant’s first question about the visual effects impact on the film:

I think the trick is not to think of the special effects or anything – and just think that this is really happening and there are giant monsters. Ask, ‘What would be the best story to tell that always involves humans?’ I don’t separate the two in my mind. You just picture the movie. What was so refreshing was that we would shoot scenes that sometimes had the creature in it and sometimes didn’t, but we would desperately try to make it work from an emotional point of view. Then, in the evenings, I would go to review things with the effects companies who are starting to put the visual effects in, and you’re like, ‘I completely forgot there’s a whole other layer to this!’ We have been painstakingly worrying about the characters and their journey and on top of that is this spectacle embedded in the whole film – and it makes you feel really good.

With the film revolving around Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen and Bryan Cranston (and of course, Godzilla himself), it’s pretty much like what the original 1954 film did revolving around Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi and Akihiko Hirata. So I can definitely see some resemblence between these two films.

Then, Gareth was asked about on how he’ll do Godzilla justice, and this is what he had to respond:

In a way we approached it was, imagine in 1954 (when the first Godzilla movie was made), that this creature really existed and someone saw him from Toho, the Japanese studio, and went running back to the studio and said, ‘I’ve seen this creature and it kind of looked like this.’ And they tried to draw it and they tried to make a suit and they did a very good job of it but then, when you saw the real creature, you go ‘Okay, I totally understand how you got that suit from that creature but now I see the real thing. Oh my God, I totally believe that it’s completely real.’ And that’s how we approached it. We went through hundreds of designs, and never stopped playing really until the last minute and got to the point where it was like, ‘Is there anything else that we want to change about this design’? And I was like, personally no, I’m very happy with it. And Toho was very much a part of the approval process. So it’s a Toho approved design as well.

It’s awesome that has approved of the Godzilla design that’s waiting to be revealed. Just like this was approved by Toho, so was the ’98 version (I know that some of you still despise that film because of the design as one of the reasons, but you must know that Toho DID approve that design).

Anyways, Gareth was then asked about potential sequel plans in the future. Here’s what he had to say about that:

With the exception of the 1954 original, I would say my second favorite film is Destroy All Monsters. I just love the idea of a monster island. Having a world with these creatures in it. I find that fascinating and would like to treat that realistically. I wouldn’t want to limit it to one other foe, I think it’s more fun to – this question will come back to haunt me if we ever do a sequel – but I think multiple creatures make better movies in terms of the image of Gojira.

So we do have strong possibilities of seeing another Destroy All Monsters film, which is awesome and great to hear that Gareth enjoys the idea of the film’s concept.

Well, all I can say is that I just can’t wait to see the film when it hits theaters May 16th next year! Also, hopefully we would love to have Gareth on our podcast and talk not only just his upcoming film, but also other things related to the daikaiju universe. So if you’re following up on us, Gareth, just send us an email at pxcrshow@gmail.com!